Posts tagged ‘Health’
Photo credit: thebittenword.com
“During the past two to three decades, we have acquired substantial evidence that most chronic diseases in America can be partially attributed to bad nutrition. More people die because of the way they eat than by tobacco use, accidents or any other lifestyle or environmental factor. The irony is that the solution is simple and inexpensive. The answer to the American health crisis is the food that each of us chooses to put in our mouths each day.
The benefits produced by eating a plant-based diet are far more diverse and impressive than any drug or surgery used in medical practice. Heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, stroke and hypertension, arthritis, cataracts, Alzheimer’s disease, impotence and all sorts of other chronic diseases can be largely prevented. Additionally, impressive evidence now exists to show that advanced heart disease, relatively advanced cancers of certain types, diabetes and a few other degenerative diseases can be reversed by diet.”
– T. Colin Campbell, The China Study
We should not just insure our health, but assure it by eating a plant-based diet. It’s not a one hundred percent guarantee against health problems, but it’s proven to tip the odds in our favor.
Here’s the FED UP movie trailer about the state of health in America.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
– Robert Frost
Life is always in motion, constantly changing, moving forward and evolving. It’s a series of challenges and situations to be solved—one way or the other. When you have a plan for your life, it helps you experience the things that are most important to you. Our plans may not always work out, but life is much better if we have something to guide and motivate us as we travel the path.
When you don’t have goals with timelines, you end up with no direction and limited success. Life planning is an ongoing process that changes based on your desires and aspirations. And as we age, having a plan is even more important.
Times have changed. Getting older doesn’t mean we aren’t vibrant and healthy and able to contribute. If you eat well, exercise and continue to learn, you can add value at any age. It’s the perceived limitations that society places in our heads about aging that become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Challenge those false beliefs. Keep moving and always have a plan of action—a vision of where you want to go and what you want to do in that space between being alive and being done.
It’s up to each of us to figure out what we want to accomplish—free of societal influences.
So take time to create a vision of the future you’d like to live. Don’t accept the preconceived notions of how you should age. You’re the only one who can make that choice.
Enjoy the road ahead—it can be amazing!
“It`s not how old you are, it`s how you are old.” – Jules Renard
“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.” – John Newton
As we travel through life, we gather things along the way: knowledge, skills, relationships, success, money, possessions—this “life stuff” is good and necessary for our trip. But it’s the extra baggage of failure, too many possessions, bad relationships, debt, fat and addictions that weighs us down and lowers the quality of our lives.
Like barnacles on a ships hull, these burdens accumulate over time—they’re the source of our stress and weaken us mentally and physically. It’s not our age that slows us down, it’s what’s attached to us.
We have the power to lift this useless weight off of our shoulders and improve our lives. By getting rid of negative mental and physical burdens, we experience life more fully and are better equipped to pursue life’s opportunities.
So, dump the junk in your life—use it and lose it—make your journey fun again!
“Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.”
– Charles Dudley Warner
There’s always a cost for extra bags.
“According to the surgeon general, obesity today is officially an epidemic; it is arguably the most pressing public health problem we face, costing the health care system an estimated $90 billion a year.
Three of every five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese. The disease formerly known as adult-onset diabetes has had to be renamed Type II diabetes since it now occurs so frequently in children.
Because of diabetes and all the other health problems that accompany obesity, today’s children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents.”
– Michael Pollan
We’re becoming a nation of food zombies—hypnotized, without consciousness and self-awareness about the bad food we’re eating. We mindlessly shuffle through our days responding to pizza, fast food and soft drink advertising, consuming huge quantities of sugar, fat, salt and other chemicals. This over-processed food has taken control of our brains, making us crave the things that are killing us!
We’re lured in by mouth-watering ads, free samples, super-sized portions, all we can eat promises and low prices—but there are hidden costs.
Over time, this bad food causes high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. And if we want to live, the price goes up. They sold us the poison, and now they’ll sell us the cure—well at least a temporary fix:
“Come on down! Here are your pills and if they don’t work, we can staple your stomach or suck the fat out of you—maybe all three!”
It’s a rigged game and we’re the losers, if we don’t wake up and make healthier food choices.
“More die in the United States of too much food than of too little”
– John Kenneth Galbraith
When you super-size your body—you minimize your life.
There’s a line in the movie Hall Pass, where Owen Wilson’s character talks about how he exercises at home—but he’s thinking of “taking his workouts public” and joining a gym.
His statement made me realize that I was in a similar situation—doing my mental exercises at home—working things out in my head. It was time to take it public and start a blog. If jogging is good for the body—then blogging will be good for the mind.
A blog gets you out of your head and onto the cyber stage. It’s an ongoing open mic night—where you can present your writing, poetry, photography, music, videos, comedy, dancing, storytelling or anything else you’d like to share. It’s an opportunity to express yourself to the online world—show and tell on a global scale.
My blog could be a huge success or a non-event. But that doesn’t matter—it’s my mental health club—putting my thoughts in writing are my workouts—they may not be as good as I’d like yet—but that’s the point of exercising.
What do you think? Are you ready to take it public?
“To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” – Aristotle
tap-tap-tap…Is this mic working?
lifeongoing 